Ticket bots are selfish, sneaky algorithms that pounce as soon as tickets to a hot show or game go on sale. While the rest of us are phoning or hitting refresh or even lining up, old school, bots swoop in and in a binary blink, scoop up thousands and thousands of tickets. Then they hold them for ransom, reselling them for an absurd profit, to anyone willing to pay an inflated price.

Bots also tie up the system, putting thousands of tickets in virtual “shopping carts” to create the impression shows are selling out, driving up prices and demand on the secondary resale market.

“Bots are a global problem. They get in the way of access by fans,” says Stew MacDonald, executive vice-president of revenue for the Oilers Entertainment Group, which operates Rogers Place.

“They have an unfair advantage, because they barrage ticket systems. And every time Ticketmaster’s software gets smarter, the bots get smarter. It’s an arms race. We’re not talking about some guy in his parents’ basement. These are very, very sophisticated companies.”

Last December, in one of his final acts as U.S. president, Barack Obama signed the Better Online Ticket Sales or BOTS Act. Co-sponsored by Republicans and Democrats, it was passed unanimously by the U.S. Congress. The BOTS Act made it illegal to use software to jump the ticket queue. It also made it illegal for anyone to resell tickets they knew, or should have known, were obtained via a bot.

A year later? The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has announced no enforcement actions under the BOTS Act. Bots are still hoovering up tickets. And American and Canadian consumers still seem willing to pay outrageous mark-ups.

Steve Tissenbaum, who teaches at Ryerson University’s Rogers School of Management, says it’s next to impossible for any North American jurisdiction to crack down on bots.

“They could be based anywhere in the world. And you can bounce bots off any number of servers and have any number of identities. They can emerge from anywhere and attack a system undetected. And how do you take these people to court? I don’t see how any government could enforce it.”

Still, Alberta wants to try. This week, Service Alberta Minister Stephanie McLean introduced Bill 31, which also proposes to make ticket bots illegal. But the legislation puts the onus on ticket sellers such as Ticketmaster. The law demands sellers cancel any ticket sales they believe to be bot-driven. It also grants ticket companies a cause of action, so that they can go to court to sue bot-buyers.

But the law could also fine Ticketmaster up to $100,000 if it doesn’t exercise due diligence — whatever that is — to clamp down on bots. The law would also allow the province to fine re-sellers such as StubHub up to $300,000 if they vend cancelled tickets and don’t provide refunds to purchasers.

Tissenbaum says it’s undoubtedly cheaper for government to put the onus on Ticketmaster.

“But is it fair to ask them to absorb the costs to be policing this? I don’t think it is fair.”

I emailed Ticketmaster’s American corporate headquarters to ask for an interview. I received this short written statement from Ticketmaster Canada’s chief operating officer Patti-Anne Tarlton: “Ticketmaster’s mission is to ensure tickets get into the hands of fans. Bots subvert that mission and we have zero tolerance for them. Ticketmaster has been at the forefront of combating bots and has invested millions to circumvent and block them; but we know that bots can’t be solved through technology alone. Ticketmaster remains firmly committed to the overall ticket buying experience, and welcomes additional efforts to help ensure tickets get into the hands of fans.”

So let’s be honest. Alberta’s well-meaning legislation isn’t going to do much of anything to combat an obnoxious global phenomenon. We’re too small a concert market to move the dial. As long as gullible consumers are willing to pay extortionate prices for “hot” tickets, bots will infest this free market. If there are 18,000 tickets for a big show at Rogers Place, and 118,000 fans who badly want them, there will inevitably be 100,000 disappointed customers, no matter how the tickets are bought and sold. And there will always be ticket touts out there, eager to exploit that disappointment.

Until there are more artists like Garth Brooks, who played so many concerts the resale market evaporated, fans will compete for a scarce supply of tickets, bots or no bots.